No Turning Back
by Goldstarrach
Summary: Quinn has Finn babysitting hoping to swing more votes for Prom Queen, when he runs into Rachel who helps him realize something very important about his relationships with both girls. Post Rumours, Pre Prom Queen. One-Shot, Finchel.


**Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything, I've just been so busy. I've been wanting to write this for a while though:) ****It takes place after "Rumours" and before "Prom Queen". Just a cute little one-shot inspired by a dream I had.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Glee_ or any of the characters. This is just for fun:)**

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><p>"Finn! You need to change this kid's diaper, now! And where is her bottle? I asked you to keep everything organized! How am I supposed to win Prom Queen if you keep slacking off like this?" Quinn shouted at Finn, who was struggling to cradle a young baby girl in his arms while also trying to find her milk bottle. Maybe if Quinn would help him out a bit, things wouldn't look as hectic as they did now. The blanket Finn carefully spread out under the tree was now crumpled, with unused diapers strewn around the space and jars of baby food toppled over. "This place is a mess." She sighed and gave Finn an accusing look.<p>

"It's hard to keep everything in order when you won't do anything to help." He said quietly. She just rolled her eyes at him and went back to checking her phone, as she had been for the past hour. "Why did you want to come to the park, anyways?" He asked, frustrated.

"Because I'm tired of being cooped up in your house all day. And if we're out in the open, more of our classmates will see the services we're doing for the greater good and vote for me – us in the Prom Court elections." Quinn said matter-of-factly. Was winning Prom Queen all she cared about anymore? Ever since he'd gotten back together with Quinn, Finn had been forced to hand out flyers and buttons, do interviews for the school paper. She even made him throw in "Vote Hudson-Fabray" at the end of his sentences every now and then. Where was the dignity?

Now she'd added babysitting to the list of things they had to do to get more votes – Quinn insisted that babysitting their fellow student's little siblings would get their votes and make them come off as nicer people to others who saw them. But right now in the middle of the park, holding a crying, smelly baby in his hands, Finn was sure that it just made him look like an idiot.

He set the baby down in the portable cradle thing that Quinn made him carry everywhere, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Taking care of this baby single handedly was proving to be hard work. He really needed to stretch his legs.

He stood up to take a walk around the park but Quinn stopped him. "Where do you think you're going?" She never gave him a break, did she?

"I can't sit down anymore Quinn, I just want walk around a bit."

"And you're going to leave me alone with the baby? Finn!" She glared at him now, completely offended.

"I've handled her on my own for hours now, I think you can deal for a few minutes." He said calmly, beginning to walk off.

"Wait!" She called after him. He hesitantly turned around to face her. "I just remembered that I have a fitting for my prom dress in 20 minutes, so I have to go. But just stay with the baby, and bring her to my place at 7-ish, okay?" She gathered up her things and set a handful of their prom flyers next to all the baby stuff. "Could you hand these out to people, too? Thanks."

She approached him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek, but Finn was not amused. "Look, I'm doing this for the both of us, Finn. This will put us back on top, where we belong." With that, she walked off toward her car and drove away, leaving Finn dumbfounded. How was he supposed to take care of this baby all alone and get her back to Quinn's at 7:00 if she took the only form of transportation he had available to him?

Why was her image so important to her? He thought maybe glee club had changed her, that she didn't care about all of that superficial stuff anymore – he guessed he was wrong. Yeah, there was a time when all he cared about was being popular too, but that was before Glee. That was before he found 12 other people who liked him for who he was, not how many girls he got or how many people he slushied.

Why _had_ he gotten back together with her? Rachel asked him the same question a few days ago, when he thought Quinn was cheating on him with Sam in a motel, but Finn didn't know the answer then either. What was it that Rachel had said to him?

"_I never understood why you got back with her. I mean, if you can't even trust her."_

"_I don't know."_

"_I do. Because you forgive your first love anything."_

That really hit him hard, when she said that. Rachel seemed to always be able to make him think about things, whether he understood them or not. But he was still a little confused about what she'd said to him. Maybe she was right, maybe you do forgive your first love anything. But was there something to explain why he'd put up with Quinn bossing him around so much for the past month and a half?

Finn breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the baby girl was sleeping - he would finally get a bit of a break.

It was weird to him that Quinn chose to babysit for people, considering everything that happened last year with the pregnancy. Is this what she would have been like, if he hadn't found out the baby was Puck's and she decided to keep it? Would she have forced all the work on him and run off to go shopping or something? Maybe that's why she gave the baby up in the first place – she probably didn't want to have to do all that work. Now it was as if she'd completely forgotten about last year, that she had a baby which Finn thought was his for 4 months. But he hadn't forgotten, though he certainly was trying to.

Finn kicked his feet out and rested his back on the tree stump behind him, watching people pass by on the sidewalk. McKinley students were all over the place – it was a popular after school hang out – but Finn had no plans to hand out the flyers that Quinn left for him. He'd just throw them away and tell her he handed all of them out.

The sound of two girls bickering to the far side of him caught his attention, and he turned his head in their direction. To his surprise, he saw Rachel and Mercedes, stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and anxiously looking in his direction every now and then. Were they worried about seeing him? No – Mercedes wouldn't be. But Rachel would.

He was glad Quinn wasn't with him now because she definitely would not have approved of what he was about to do. But she was standing only 50 feet away from him – he couldn't resist the urge to talk to her.

He stood up to face them and cleared his voice. "Hey, Rachel! Mercedes!"

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><p>"I'm glad our Rumours assignment is over. That was one crazy week I'd rather not relive." Mercedes said to Rachel as they walked through the park. Rachel got done with her homework early today, so she hadn't been opposed to hanging out with Mercedes after school – she could use a break every now and then from her vigorous schedule.<p>

"Tell me about it. I stayed up way too late going on stake-outs this week with Finn. Which, as you know, had no positive end results." Rachel sighed remembering the past week. She'd asked Finn to go on a stakeout with her in hopes of getting to talk and spend more time with him. Okay, so, yes, she often had romantic ulterior motives when it came to Finn, but she couldn't help it. When they'd broken up, not only had she lost her boyfriend, but she lost her best friend. She wasn't going to let Quinn Fabray steal both of those things away from her.

"Things don't have to be as awkward between you two as you make them. Why can't you guys just be friends and leave the rest of us out of it? Whatever's going on is between you and Finn. Not the entire glee club." Rachel knew that Mercedes meant well, but it still hurt a little bit.

She lowered her gaze a bit and continued to speak. "I know. But I don't regret singing that song to him this week. And I don't regret going on those stakeouts. Hopefully he doesn't either."

"Well, why don't you ask him now?" Mercedes stopped walking and pointed to the right of her. "He's sitting right over there."

"What? Where?" Rachel lowered her voice and looked around frantically until she spotted him. "No, no! I can't!"

"And why can't you?" Mercedes asked, folding her arms.

"Because after this past week's assignment, I'm pretty sure Quinn hates me even more and would probably go crazy if she saw me talking to him." Rachel replied, sneaking quick glances in Finn's direction.

"Since when do you care what Quinn thinks? And she's not even over there, see? It's just him and – is that a baby?" Mercedes tried to look closer but Rachel turned her around.

"Stop staring! Let's just go before he sees us." She tugged her friends arm to go back in the direction they came, but something stopped her.

"Hey, Rachel! Mercedes!" Oh no. No, no, no! She was not prepared for this!

"Well, you heard him!" Mercedes nudged Rachel to turn around, and began to walk off in the other direction. "I'll let you talk alone."

"Mercedes!" She whispered to her, but she was already gone. She looked back in his direction, and he waved her over, flashing his crooked smile. One thing was for sure – there was no turning back now.

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><p>Good, she was heading in his direction. What was he going to say to her, anyways? Oh, it didn't matter. Rachel always had something to say, she'd be able to start a conversation.<p>

"Hey." She offered, standing in front of him.

"Hey." Was all he could manage in response. "Would you like to sit?"

"Sure." She said, flashing him a slight smile. Her eyes floated to the baby sleeping next to him. "Who is this?" She asked in a calm voice.

"I'm not entirely sure. Quinn never told me whose baby she was, she just kind of threw her on me." Finn noticed Rachel's eyes drop when he mentioned Quinn.

"Oh." She said, looking him in the eyes now. "She's making you babysit for her?"

Finn sighed. "Sort of. She thinks it will get us more prom votes." She narrowed her eyes a bit, seeming hurt, but she pressed on.

"That's ironic."

"Ironic?"

"I mean, it's weird that she has you… parenting for this little baby, considering…" Rachel didn't finish the sentence but he knew what she meant.

"Yeah, I know. And she hasn't done anything to help." He didn't know how he should feel with her staring at him so intensely. Should he be intimidated, should he feel bad, excited?

"It's a little insensitive of her, don't you think? To leave you alone with a baby, doing all of the work. I mean, maybe that's what she would have done if I'd never told you the baby was Puck's." Rachel had a little gleam in her eye now, and he could tell she knew where she wanted this conversation to go, though he had no idea where that was.

"That's sort of what I was thinking." The little girl's eyes were beginning to open and tiny screams erupted from her lips. "And I have no idea how to take care of a baby! She does this whenever she's awake." Finn looked at the baby annoyed. "What is it? Do you need your bottle? Food? Diaper changed? What?"

Rachel let out a little giggle, and Finn laughed with her. "What?" He asked.

"She's not going to answer you, Finn." Rachel smoothed out her skirt and edged closer to the baby. "May, I?" She asked, wanting to pick the girl up. "I baby sit a lot, so I'm used to this." She began to rock the baby back and forth, and shushed her, singing a soft song. Even when singing a lullaby her voice was elegant, Finn noticed. A few moments later, the baby stopped crying and was completely silent.

"How did you do that?" Finn asked, completely blown away.

"Lots of practice. I think she's thirsty. Does she have a bottle?" Rachel asked, perusing the area. "Ah, here it is." She grabbed the bottle that Finn never could find from under the crumpled blanket, where he never thought to look. "Why don't you feed her?" Rachel said, gently placing the baby in Finn's arms. She had to adjust his hands so that he held her correctly and help him place the bottle in the baby's mouth, but eventually he got the hang of it.

"There you go! You're a real pro at this, Finn." She said laughing. He loved hearing her laugh and seeing her smile at him. It had been too long since they'd last spent time together, not on a stakeout.

"Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. We make a pretty good team." He said, offering her his famous half-smile.

It was quiet for a few moments while they watched the baby drink peacefully but Rachel spoke up. "Finn, I don't regret telling you that the baby was Puck's. You deserved to know the truth. But I have no doubt that if I hadn't told you, you would have been a great father. And you'll be a great father to somebody else in the future."

He never really thought about that aspect of his future. The farthest in his path that he dared think about was getting into a good college. But there was one time when he thought about having kids one day and being a father. It was a while back, when he was having a revelation about his faith. He was still with Rachel, and she was telling him how she wanted their relationship to go the distance, that she wanted to have kids with him, and some other stuff that he didn't really remember. At the time, he'd wanted that too. In fact, she was the only person that he could see himself with later in life, settled down as a family. He couldn't imagine settling down with Quinn – he didn't want to imagine that.

If you had asked him when he was with Rachel where he saw himself in 20 years, he would've known the answer. But now, with Quinn, he wasn't so sure.

He was glad Rachel said he'd be a good father. He really hoped he would be too.

"Thanks." He said, still smiling at her. A few moments later, she looked at her cell phone for the time.

"I've got to go now, Finn, but it was really nice spending time with you." She stood up and smoothed out her skirt. "Good luck with the babysitting."

They said their goodbyes and he watched her as she walked off. She looked back at him once, and they shared a smile, but after that she was gone.

She'd done it again. She'd left him totally confused like she did on their stakeout. Now more than ever he wondered why he was still with Quinn. He was guessing it would take him a while to figure that out. With Rachel, he never had any doubts as to why he was with her. He _knew_ why – it was because he was in love with her, and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And if he was being honest with himself, that hadn't changed, as much as he wanted it to.

He stared down at the little baby girl in his arms once again, trying to imagine himself in the future, doing this with his own kid. But there was no Quinn in his daydreaming, just the tiny brunette who was all the way across the park now.

To get over Rachel. That's the only reason why he'd gotten back with Quinn. But now, he could see it.

He fell in love with Rachel Berry a long time ago, and it was proving impossible to get over her. Once you fell in love with her, there really was no falling out. He knew that now. It was far too late to get over her.

One thing was for sure – there was no turning back now.

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**Thanks for reading!**

**-Goldstarrach**


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